Branding & Marketing Archive

Earlier this month, I shared my birthday with the launch of Benami Media, a communications strategy shop devoted to helping socially minded individuals and organizations tell their stories, grow awareness, and make change happen.

Two years ago, I faulted Milwaukee's tourism office for not understanding their audience: Chicagoans. This summer, Brew Town has once again plastered Chicago's buses and 'L' trains with travel ads. Guess what they still don't understand?

I'd like to know how an anonymous, scathing comment about my recent criticism of the Visit Milwaukee tourism campaign got on my blog from...the IP address of a PR firm employed by Visit Milwaukee. How about you?

The urbanist in me loves that St. Louis and Milwaukee are vying for Chicago visitors with cheeky local tourism ads. Here's why the St. Louis campaign has me yearning to visit, while the Milwaukee campaign has me yawning and staying home.

For months I dismissed Foursquare, the popular GPS check-in game, as a marketing gimmick. But a whirlwind day chasing down Chicago's official tourism badges showed a friend and me how addictive it can be--and taught us a lot about our own city that we never knew before.

When rolling out a national ad campaign, it helps to make use of your most recognizable icon. Borrowing the look of another company's icon? Not so helpful. So why does the UPS Store ad in the March 2010 issue of Fast Company look like a promo for Disney's 'Cars'?

There are bad branding strategies. There are Macy's-mothballs-Marshall-Field awful branding strategies. And then there's Willis Group's hubris- and hare-brained idea to rename the Sears Tower. What do you get when you glue a new name on an old icon whose existing monicker has worldwide recognition? Judging by local blog

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MICHAEL THADDEUS DOYLE

I'm an NYC-native, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, Chilean, French, Jewish convert, Disney World fan with an unexpected last name, living in Chicago. I believe in social justice, big cities, and public transit. I did urban planning in New York. I do communications strategy in Chicago. I've written this blog since 2005. I’ve been with my partner since 2010. And in 2015, I reunited with my family after 20 years apart. Believe in the world you want to live in.